Why can't we just admit that we were beaten by a better goalie? Shoot, Quick stood on his head for most of the series. That is why we lost.

Could Stewart have been better the first couple of games? sure. So could have Backes. Heck the best line we had as a line was Oshie, Perron, and Berglund. I think they produced like one goal. (And of course now everyone wants to trade Berglund). I get an upgrade, but noone will likely do that.

IMO, we don't make the playoffs without Stewart and Berglund and now we are looking to trade them. It isn't even a disapointing loss as we outplayed the Kings. But they got all of the bounces. Penner's shot isn't tipped and Elliot makes the save. Stewart's shot hits the post and goes in.... Game of inches and we came out on the short end.

Honestly, on Stewart - seems like that line spent a lot of time defending. Which isn't McDonald's best area. They had a hard time getting the puck posession in the offensive zone. They are also a line that need to create chance off the rush. Stewart has improved his board play, but he isn't near as good a Steen, Jaden, Oshie, and Perron.

Would I love to see Stewart go through people on the forecheck - YES. I don't know that he ever will. It is the one area he really needs to improve on in the playoffs and then he would be a beast.

Final note on this - Stewart is streaky - and so is Berglund - but that is because they put up 50% of their points as goals. When you look at other high end forwards - most have a larger number of assist then goals (. Pure goal scorers usually have just as many goals as assists - which is why it is hard for them to get more then 60 points. Backes has a simular problem.

I don't know what ailes this team, other then flat out bad luck. We seem to lose the game of inches and are on the wrong end of bad tips/goals/posts/losing edges....

I don't know what will improve us. We made a few mistakes each game and the puck wound up in the net. All teams make mistakes, Quick was just the best player on the ice for either side. Quite frankly, I am not sure Vanek in place of Stewart would have made a difference with the way Quick was playing - boy was he ever out challanging the shooters.

Why can't we just admit that we were beaten by a better goalie? Shoot, Quick stood on his head for most of the series. That is why we lost.

Could Stewart have been better the first couple of games? sure. So could have Backes. Heck the best line we had as a line was Oshie, Perron, and Berglund. I think they produced like one goal. (And of course now everyone wants to trade Berglund). I get an upgrade, but noone will likely do that.

IMO, we don't make the playoffs without Stewart and Berglund and now we are looking to trade them. It isn't even a disapointing loss as we outplayed the Kings. But they got all of the bounces. Penner's shot isn't tipped and Elliot makes the save. Stewart's shot hits the post and goes in.... Game of inches and we came out on the short end.

Honestly, on Stewart - seems like that line spent a lot of time defending. Which isn't McDonald's best area. They had a hard time getting the puck posession in the offensive zone. They are also a line that need to create chance off the rush. Stewart has improved his board play, but he isn't near as good a Steen, Jaden, Oshie, and Perron.

Would I love to see Stewart go through people on the forecheck - YES. I don't know that he ever will. It is the one area he really needs to improve on in the playoffs and then he would be a beast.

Final note on this - Stewart is streaky - and so is Berglund - but that is because they put up 50% of their points as goals. When you look at other high end forwards - most have a larger number of assist then goals (. Pure goal scorers usually have just as many goals as assists - which is why it is hard for them to get more then 60 points. Backes has a simular problem.

I don't know what ailes this team, other then flat out bad luck. We seem to lose the game of inches and are on the wrong end of bad tips/goals/posts/losing edges....

I don't know what will improve us. We made a few mistakes each game and the puck wound up in the net. All teams make mistakes, Quick was just the best player on the ice for either side. Quite frankly, I am not sure Vanek in place of Stewart would have made a difference with the way Quick was playing - boy was he ever out challanging the shooters.

Stewart was useless the entire series. Didn't play defense, didn't score, barely could make a pass, didn't back check, didn't skate. Essentially he did nothing of use. The Berglund line was an absolute train wreck. They got pinned in out zone so many time I couldn't count. The CPR line had more sustained pressure than them. I said before the series that if we were having to rely on the fourth line for scoring chances than we were in trouble. We had two useless lines this series.

And anyone who thinks Chris Stewart and Bobby Ryan are even close to equal talents simply doesn't watch hockey.

Whether it was a realistic possibility is irrelevant to the argument that we'd be overpaying, which is even more hilarious now than then.

All I'm saying is that your tooting your horn for a hypothetical trade proposal that was never actually an option for Doug Armstrong.

I can say that I would have traded Backes and Shattenkirk for Malkin months ago and the results of the playoff series would be different, but that has no basis in reality.

Yes, Bobby Ryan is a much better player than Stewart. Is that worth opening a hole in the Blues center depth which is already weak? Maybe. It is certainly debatable.

But yeah, I totally don't watch hockey. At all. I just post here instead... Seriously, there was no need to insult me or be dismissive.

Bobby Ryan plays with a MUCH better playmaker than Chris Stewart, be it Getzlaf OR Koivu. Bobby Ryan was never available. The Blues were more interested in bolstering their transition game than finding a finisher. The Blues weren't looking for an upgrade at winger. Why do you keep bringing up this trade proposal you made as if it means something?

Tons of potential but strikes me as the type looking to sign a multi year deal and then activate cruise control and coast. Not a heart and soul guy you want around come playoff time…anyone know if he is a RFA or UFA?

Stewart was useless the entire series. Didn't play defense, didn't score, barely could make a pass, didn't back check, didn't skate. Essentially he did nothing of use. The Berglund line was an absolute train wreck. They got pinned in out zone so many time I couldn't count. The CPR line had more sustained pressure than them. I said before the series that if we were having to rely on the fourth line for scoring chances than we were in trouble. We had two useless lines this series.

He's a good enough player/guy but the team's system exposes his weaknesses and doesn't accentuate his positives. We simply don't have the personnel to allow Stewart to flourish offensively. In fact, I can't think of a more ill-suited system for a player of his type to play in.

Too streaky and not a great fit for our system. I don't think he fits well on a gritty team like the Blues. If I'm Army I do everything possible to trade him, and thankfully I think he still has quite a bit of trade value. For me he's the cornerstone of a trade for a top end center.

Too streaky and not a great fit for our system. I don't think he fits well on a gritty team like the Blues. If I'm Army I do everything possible to trade him, and thankfully I think he still has quite a bit of trade value. For me he's the cornerstone of a trade for a top end center.

Exactly this. Stewart is an RFA. There are teams with "Run and Gun" offences that would love to add him. I hope a couple of them bid on him with over $4-5 million offer sheets. Then, The Blues could accept the compensation draft picks, or meet the offer and trade him. I think that Armstrong will be shopping him. It will be nice to have him form a big part of the package to land a scoring star (preferably centre, but even a proven high goal-scoring winger will do).

IF Army is able to get us a legit playmaking center; Stewart is the single 1 player on this team you try to keep around to play with him. Stewart is our only proven goal scorer on the wing.

It is extremely short sighted to run Stewart out of town based on what happened against LA. Not only does that mindset completely ignore what was actually going on with his line(McDonald was the problem with that unit, not Stewart); it also completely ignores Stewart proven past performance.

Put me down in favor of keeping Stewart. All goal scorers are streaky, and when Stewart is "on" he's as good as anybody out there. Just get him a good center to work with.

IF Army is able to get us a legit playmaking center; Stewart is the single 1 player on this team you try to keep around to play with him. Stewart is our only proven goal scorer on the wing.

It is extremely short sighted to run Stewart out of town based on what happened against LA. Not only does that mindset completely ignore what was actually going on with his line(McDonald was the problem with that unit, not Stewart); it also completely ignores Stewart proven past performance.

Put me down in favor of keeping Stewart. All goal scorers are streaky, and when Stewart is "on" he's as good as anybody out there. Just get him a good center to work with.

Agreed. Why go after a #1 centerman if he has no one to play with?

Admittedly, I didn't really know much about Stewart before he came over to the Blues. How did he look playing in Colorado? Did he play w/ Stastny, and if so, how did they look together?

he's not only inconsistent offensively... he's consistently bad in our own zone and consistently weak on his stick... so many dam turnovers and weak plays... the blues need guys who do ALL the little things right... because that's the only way we can win when we don't have a consistently elite goaltender or a consistent scorer...

Admittedly, I didn't really know much about Stewart before he came over to the Blues. How did he look playing in Colorado? Did he play w/ Stastny, and if so, how did they look together?

This bolded logic makes absolutely zero sense to me. You have to start somewhere. You need to be strong down the middle, on defense, and in net to be a cup winning team. What you just wrote is the completely wrong thought-process. That's like saying, why draft Pietrangelo 4th overall if he has nobody to play with? Why bring over Tarasenko when we don't have a #1 center on this team? You don't just throw it out the window. We need a #1 center, so we need to try to get one. Not a difficult concept to understand. And we do have players for the guy to play with, BTW, so that's just completely wrong. It isn't like we have 4th-liners in our top 6...

As for Stewart, he was the same streaky scorer in Colorado that he is now. But he played with Stastny a lot, and was on a 30-goal pace in both full seasons that he played with the Avs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by canucks95

He was scoring at a 30+ goal pace this year

Just curious, would you guys do a swap of Stewart for Edler?

No. Now that we have Bouwmeester we don't need Edler. Great player though.

IF Army is able to get us a legit playmaking center; Stewart is the single 1 player on this team you try to keep around to play with him. Stewart is our only proven goal scorer on the wing.

It is extremely short sighted to run Stewart out of town based on what happened against LA. Not only does that mindset completely ignore what was actually going on with his line(McDonald was the problem with that unit, not Stewart); it also completely ignores Stewart proven past performance.

Put me down in favor of keeping Stewart. All goal scorers are streaky, and when Stewart is "on" he's as good as anybody out there. Just get him a good center to work with.

This is right on... Get the man a playmaking center... We don't have one. Just a mixed bag of 2nd and 3rd line players. Tarasenko needs someone who can get him the puck too. I think you would be amazed at what both of them are capable of. Bring in Lehtera and get a #1 center. Backes is a #2. Berglund a #3 and Sobotka a #4 or a winger. Use some of the Plethora of prospects/2nd line 3rd line players and trade for a LEGIT playmaking center.

I say keep Stewart.
I feel that if we can get a good center, we have a lot of players who could move around and become solid finishers with someone feeding them good pucks.
It's an odd place to be in, in my opinion. We have a lot of guys who could be super solid scorers, if they had a decent center to feed them the puck.
I'm hoping we can get a good center, without giving up too much of the current team.
As much as i want a great center, i'd hate to lose Shattenkirk in the process.
I feel like we would be okay letting Leopold go, and playing more Russel and Cole.
Nothing against Leopold, i just feel like we're super deep at D and he didn't play poorly, in my opinion, but he also didn't really shine.

How is someone like him supposed to score going to the net when we don't have anyone who can actually pass to the slot. I mean literally pass it to the player, not just throw it past the crease over, and over, and over, and over. Our players completely gave up on going to the front of the net because the puck never went there without a d-man doing all the damn work.

If Polak has to pinch on every other shift just to get the puck in deep and play it where the hell are our goal scorers going to be setting up? His pass could end up anywhere in the zone for all they know, or more than likely right on a Kings player's stick going the other way...